If you think of eCommerce, it’s highly likely that you’ll also think of Amazon – it’s a hugely influential and important site that really sets the standard when it comes to selling online in many ways. It’s definitely something a business owner might want to emulate, but you don’t have to come up with your own version to make money if you’re in eCommerce. In fact, it might be better to see Amazon as a potential partner rather than a competitor.
In other words, you can use the fact that Amazon allows external sellers to use its platform for their own online stores and enjoy all the benefits that come with doing exactly that. If you’re still not sure, here are some of the many reasons why selling on Amazon is good for business and could boost your profits nicely.
Massive Reach
There are millions of active users on Amazon that span the entire world, which means that if you’re using Amazon to sell from, you have access to all those people as well. Imagine how much that would cost and how much effort it would take to ensure you got the same reach from your own single eCommerce website. The truth is that no matter how good you are and how fantastic your products might be, getting that reach will take years, perhaps decades, and that’s a lot of commitment to ask of anyone, even if they’re entirely dedicated to what they’re doing and their ultimate goals.
If you want to reduce the time it takes to get your business in front of more people than ever before, Amazon is the answer. Of course, you’ll still need to put the effort in because that audience and those potential customers aren’t going to find you otherwise (Amazon is a busy site with many people using it), but it will be an easier and shorter process, especially if you use experts like Nuanced Media to help you.
Trust And Credibility
Another one of the huge advantages of selling through Amazon is that it comes with built-in trust and credibility. Remember that Amazon is the world’s largest online marketplace, and over the years, it’s built a reputation for being reliable, convenient, and giving customers exactly what they want when they want it. It’s this customer satisfaction that you can use to make your own brand much more trustworthy as well, meaning more people will choose to buy from you.
By listing your products on Amazon, you’ll instantly become more credible, and anyone who might be thinking of buying from you will have a lot more confidence in you than they would if they just came across your stand-alone site themselves through an internet search, for example. Plus, you can get reviews on Amazon, which gives potential customers even more proof that you’re reliable and trustworthy.
Logistics And Fulfilment
When you run an eCommerce business, it can be hard to keep up with all the orders (especially during busy times of the year), and that can lead to disappointed customers and a poor reputation, not to mention lost sales and revenue.
However, you can use Amazon’s fulfilment services to make things a lot simpler and more organised, and that means fewer mistakes and happier customers. This idea might not be right for everyone, and it will depend on how you run your business or even what you sell, but if you can take advantage of the fact that Amazon can handle the storage, packaging, and shipping details, then it’s wise to do just that – you only have to think of marketing and which products to sell and everything else is taken care of for you.
Access To Data
Amazon is as big as it is today because of how it uses the data it collects. It uses it to market properly, to set algorithms, and to ensure that customers get ads in the right places for the right things (including sales emails if they’re signed up to them). You might think that’s a great thing for Amazon, but how does it affect you – the answer is simple; you can get access to that data as well and use it in your own marketing to boost your reach and sales.
Amazon can give you lots of data that will give you valuable insights into customer behaviour, market trends, and your own specific product performance and customers. When you use this data in the right way, you can ensure that you’re marketing to the right people in a way that speaks to them and makes them want to buy from you. It’s true you might make some sales without using this data, but it’s much better to use it and do things in a more productive and cost-effective way.
International Expansion
Although not all business owners want to expand globally, if you do, using Amazon to help you could be ideal. The ideal of this kind of expansion can be hugely daunting and there’s so much to think about, but with Amazon behind you, a lot of the problems you might otherwise face will disappear. There will still be challenges – there always will be – but you’ll be able to minimise them and ensure that you can just focus more on the expansion itself.
The fact is that Amazon is already in many different countries, so that element – putting your products in front of more people – has been dealt with already. With that big hurdle out of the way, you can focus on your marketing and market research (that’s a massive part of a successful expansion, and it’s something you’ll need to do no matter what platform you decide to use, so make sure it’s at the top of your to-do list) and start making the profits you’re hoping for.
Final Thoughts
Selling on Amazon might not be the first thing you think of when you want to set up an eCommerce business or expand the one you already have, and for a lot of people, Amazon is more of a competitor than anything else. However, once you realise that there are lots of positive reasons why selling on Amazon is good for business, you might change your mind.